"An empty car stopped near 10 Downing Street, out of which Clement Ashley emerged," Winston Churchill once mocked his rival and collaborator, Clement Ashley. Two years ago, a limousine convoy stopped near the Council on Foreign Relations building in Manhattan. A man came out of it in a great commotion that none of the passersby knew. It was the current US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. I was there to see.
Ashley, contrary to Churchill's sarcasm, was one of Britain's greatest prime ministers. Blinken, on the other hand, will be remembered as one of the foreign ministers who collapsed America's standing in the world. Although the Secretary of State is ultimately an official on behalf of the President, his policy is not independent. Still, Blinken's first three years are a glorious chain of failures.
Roy Avraham /GPO
China has raised the threat to America, despite its domestic economic crisis. Russia has invaded Ukraine, a U.S. ally, shaking up the world order. By the way, Zelensky and his people are still fighting, but these days Putin has the upper hand. And Iran, the Middle East enemy of the United States, is rushing forward. Both Blinken's policies and measures turned out to be flawed and disastrous. This is his legacy.
Early in his term, Blinken wanted to reach a new nuclear deal, "stronger and longer," as he put it. It failed miserably. Despite countless concessions, the Iranians did not come. Then it turned out that the person appointed to handle the Iran case, Rob Malley – who was known for his sympathy for Tehran – was suspected of indirect espionage on its behalf. Mali was removed from the post in disgrace and to this day his fate is unknown. Blinken's State Department lied when it initially claimed that Mali stopped coming to work "because of personal issues."
The same Iran that Blinken did not stop is, of course, behind the terrible attack on Israel on Simchat Torah. This war, too, his weakness invited.
This disgraceful record did not remove the American secretary of state from office. Biden is old and weak, and now preoccupied with elections. Because of his love for Israel and the astonishment that struck him on the first day, the president still managed to stand by us in the first days of the war. He set out a directive according to which the United States supports the Israeli goal of destroying Hamas, which is still ostensibly binding on the administration.
Since then, however, Blinken and the State Department have simply dissolved the war in every way. Biden was trailing them. On the one hand, American military aid is indeed astounding in scope. On the other hand, the demands and limitations that Blinken and his gang overwhelm the war's achievements.
Flushing
In meetings in Israel this week, the secretary of state claimed that the administration itself was under pressure from members of Congress and the progressive wing. His message to Netanyahu, Galant, Gantz and Herzog was something like, "Look at what's happening on the other side, too. There is real hunger there, and babies are dying. Understand the pressures on us, and help us help you."
This was his justification for preaching morality and the chain of dictations to Israel, which he announced in front of microphones and cameras on Tuesday night in Tel Aviv. Because the Israeli people are preoccupied with other troubles, while Blinken is so anemic, his audacity has gone under the radar. But here is part of the text:
"In today's meetings I was clear: Palestinian citizens must be able to return home as soon as conditions permit. They must not be pressured to leave Gaza. As I told the Prime Minister, the United States unequivocally rejects any proposal advocating the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza, and the Prime Minister confirmed to me today that this is not the policy of the Government of Israel."
Still on our side. Trump, Photo: AFP
"The UN's Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, has America's full support. It should also have Israel's support."
"Israel must stop taking steps that harm the Palestinians' ability to govern themselves effectively. Extreme settler violence with impunity, settlement expansion, demolitions, evictions all make it difficult for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security. If Israel wants its Arab neighbors to make the tough decisions necessary to ensure its continued security, Israel's leaders will have to make tough decisions themselves."
Incidentally, he also announced that his heart goes out to an Al Jazeera journalist who was killed by Israeli fire. A few hours later, the IDF Spokesperson revealed the journalist's direct connection to Islamic Jihad.
Blinken did say a few words about the necessary reforms in the Palestinian Authority, and on Wednesday even confronted Abbas about it in Ramallah. At least those were the Palestinian reports. He also noted that "the events of October 7 must not be repeated," and that "the United States stands with Israel and finds its accusation of genocide shocking, especially considering that those who attack Israel – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Iran that supports them – continue to openly call for the destruction of Israel and the mass murder of Jews."
Still, most of his pressure, just like during Obama's cheerful days – for which Blinken held senior positions – was placed on Israel. In the countries of the region that he visited before coming to Israel, and which, of course, did not go through what we went through in Simchat Torah, he did not dare to express himself in this way. Here, just three months after the biggest pogrom before and after the Holocaust, he shifts the burden of demands and blame onto our shoulders. The truth is that it's unbelievable.
The Silence of the Lambs
Israeli resistance to the pressure was meager. With the exception of the IDF Spokesperson, who posted a video with a strong message about Israel's enormous humanitarian operations, Israeli officials bowed their heads. They didn't say, "We're fighting for our lives here, and if you're an ally, you should support us morally and publicly." They did not answer, "We have another 130 abductees inside, we will add a truck against every abductee," or "The aid that enters goes to Hamas, prevents the achievement of the goals of the war and teaches the population that the organization still owns the house in Gaza. With these pressures, you prevent us from winning." They should have answered, "Why are you relying on UN data, which is a biased organization and has been taken over by Hamas in Gaza anyway?!" They had to ask, "What did you bring from the Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia that you visited? Will they demilitarize Gaza? Will they make sure they stop firing missiles at us from there?!"
Instead of standing tall, the Israeli leadership agreed, for some reason, that a UN team, yes the UN, would determine the conditions required to allow Gazans to return to their homes in northern Gaza. A willingness was also expressed to increase to 400(!) the number of aid trucks entering daily. Netanyahu also pledged to the people and the world that there would be no occupation and no population exodus – two steps that we might need – so there is a situation in which Netanyahu has once again become embroiled in a lie with the world.
Where will the surprise come from? Haley and DeSantis, Photo: Reuters
Indeed, there were other demands that Blinken made that were rejected out of hand. From Netanyahu to Herzog to Gantz, they made it clear to him that both in Gaza and in Lebanon, Israel would insist on the decisions it made to remove the threats. There were certainly unpleasant moments for him in the Kirya. Still, someone had to draw a red line for him – which didn't happen.
Some in Jerusalem this week recalled Kissinger's campaign that pushed Israel into a corner after the Yom Kippur War. In this respect, too, the similarities between that difficult war and today are very similar. Only Kissinger was a great statesman and a wise Jew. He broke the Communist bloc by splitting Russia and China, causing Egypt to switch to the Western bloc, and the annals of the world are full of his witty statements.
Jewish history, on the other hand, sees Kissinger as a controversial figure, because in the difficult moments of that war he seemed to be playing with our destiny. And that, embarrassingly, is the only point of similarity between him and the current Jewish Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
The race begins
"If I were president, this wouldn't have happened," Donald Trump declared when Putin invaded Ukraine two years ago. Since the Hamas attack, he has redoubled down on this mantra, and rightly so.
Trump was a crazy bully, and on the global scene that was the secret of his power. On the one hand, it was he who signed the withdrawal agreement from Afghanistan and announced that the United States was not the world's policeman. On the other hand, he flew his muscles to China, beat up Iran, and mostly sowed confusion among U.S. opponents. Sometimes the clause jumped out and he went wild. Sometimes he was kidnapped and ignored. Even if it wasn't perfect, the global and regional results – first and foremost the Abraham Accords – would have been much better.
This coming Monday, for the first time since the 2020 election, Trump will be up for election again. In the state of Iowa, the first round of the primary will be held. All the polls predict a landslide victory for him, but he himself, and of course the other candidates, invest everything they can in this strange little country - no one really understands the electoral system there, which is conducted in ancient consultations called "coconuts". It's also because of her that the candidates have been plowing through Iowa for months, waving babies from the most remote guys
Republican for president. He leads his competitors by tens of percentage points, and among all Republican voters enjoys even 60% support. So on the way the battle was decided before it began.Still, an asterisk
Warning. U.S. primaries tend to surprise, as Trump did to his competitors in 2016. What could go wrong for him? Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey whose race was intended solely to hurt Trump, suspended his campaign over the weekend. If Christie removes his name from the shortlist, or even endorses Nikki Haley, she could end up in second place in Iowa. Now it gets interesting.
Because if the cute DeSantis only comes in third place in Iowa, he might retire. Even so, his campaign has been lame all along. This is important because a week after Iowa, a primary will be held in New Hampshire. In the frozen northern state, Haley has already narrowed the gap with Trump. The average of polls gives her 30% support, compared to 43% for the former president. If Christie and DeSantis' votes shift to her, the battle is already getting really close.
It doesn't end here. After Iowa and New Hampshire, the campaign moves to South Carolina, Haley's home state where she served as governor. Trump isn't even really trying to work there. That is, on Super Tuesday in early March, where there are one-day primaries in many states, Haley and Trump may already go head-to-head. How will it end? No one can tell.
The important question for us, of course, is who is good for the Jews. The answer is: everyone. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are a safe haven for Israel. If one of them is elected, Israel will be able to solve its problems with Gaza in two minutes. Haley has already said that Egypt and the rest of the region must bear the burden. DeSantis was more cautious, but simply announced that he would let Israel do whatever it wanted.
Trump, on the other hand, is carrying scores with Netanyahu, playing with anti-Semitic messages a bit, no longer surrounded by Jewish aides, and in general an unpredictable person. Still, his core of support is evangelical Christians for whom Israel is top of mind. He, too, has a basic positive feeling for us. So Trump, Haley or DeSantis — that's sure to be much better than Blinken.
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